SY SYLD Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF Loading... : Investor Sentiment and Bull/Bear Views

Shareholder yield strategies historically outperform high dividend yield and dividend growth strategies because they incorporate buybacks and avoid companies that dilute shareholders through share issuance.

A quantitative shareholder yield strategy—buying companies with high combined buybacks, dividends, and debt reduction, and sorting by momentum to avoid value traps—historically adds about 1% per year and has delivered exceptional results across US, foreign developed, and emerging markets.

Meb Faber presents SYLD, Cambria's own actively managed ETF, as worthy of investors' consideration after it underperformed its Morningstar category in 2024 and 2025 and saw outflows. He argues the rough patch is a normal feature of a sound long-term strategy rather than proof it is broken. His evidence is SYLD's top-decile category ranking over 10 years and since inception, its outperformance in 8 of 12 calendar years, and its outperformance across every 5- and 10-year rolling window. He also notes the relative underperformance appears to be reversing early in 2026. On valuation, he says SYLD is cheaper than both the midcap value category and the S&P 500 (P/E 12.52 vs 17.86 vs 27.61, with the same pattern on other metrics). He suggests investors who were waiting for a pullback could treat the lag as their chance.